He said that in the summer of 2010 a radical Islamist summit starring Hezbollah, also involving Hamas, took place in Caracas, at the headquarters of military intelligence.

The newspaper said it had access to several communications preparatory meeting, which involved the ambassador of Venezuela in Syria, Imam Saab Saab, and the then Iranian ambassador in Damascus, Ahmad Mousavi.

He said the second man of the Chavez regime in the Syrian capital, Lebanese Ghazi Nassereddine naturalized Venezuelan, is the most prominent of Hezbollah in Venezuela and has a close relationship with Venezuelan Minister of Interior, Tarik el-Aissami. Nassereddine and El-Aissami are designated by the Attorney of New York as the main partners of Chavez with Hezbollah and one attributed financing of terrorist operations and delivery of passports other activists of the organization.

Hezbollah, Lebanese and funding Iran and Syria’s support, has promoted numerous terrorist attacks. “Penetration in Latin America has been conducted through a growing network of Islamic centers whose function is the recruitment and radicalization of activists, as well as fundraising.

They also serve as support logistically possible money laundering and drug trafficking, which place elements of Hezbollah in the U.S. border, “he says. He said that until Chavez came to power, the main Hezbollah cells present was in the triple border between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. “While it is true that there have been cases in which Hezbollah members have entered the U.S. illegally to carry out attacks, not sensational or alarmist to be concerned and respond with appropriate measures’ said Roger Noriega, a senior Bush Administration, in a recent lecture at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos has been rescued in Venezuela and is with the police on his way back home, his agent, Gustavo Mercado, said in a phone conversation. The Interior Minster called to tell the family at roughly 10 minutes before 10 p.m. East Coast time.

Venezuelan police are hunting for a gang that abducted Major League Baseball player Wilson Ramos at gunpoint in a case that has highlighted the country’s serious crime problem.

Baseball fans held a candlelight vigil on Thursday in his hometown, Valencia, holding posters outside the local baseball stadium.

The 24-year-old catcher for the Washington Nationals, who was preparing to play for Venezuela‘s Aragua Tigers during the US off-season, was kidnapped on Wednesday from his family home.

Four armed men in a stolen 4×4 vehicle seized Ramos while he chatted with friends and relatives, colleagues and police said. The vehicle was later found abandoned and there was no word on any ransom demand.

Tareck El Aissami, Venezuela’s justice minister, said anti-kidnapping units led by “the best investigators we have” were dispatched to the area in central Carabobo state.

He pledged to rescue Ramos and capture his abductors, saying: “We’re taking on this investigation with everything we’ve got.”

Venezuela’s CICPC investigative police said its experts had produced artists impressions of two suspects.

Most kidnappings in Venezuela are for financial motives, with gangs demanding large ransoms and mostly preying on local businessmen and landowners. Security experts say only northern Mexico, where drug gangs wreak havoc, rivals Venezuela for abductions in Latin America.

The wealthy have taken steps to protect themselves. Sales of armoured cars have jumped in the past several years.

Insecurity is a major issue in the run-up to the 2012 presidential vote when Hugo Chavez will seek re-election.

Rising number

Venezuelan police said 618 kidnappings were reported in 2009, and the numbers have grown rapidly in recent years. In 1998, when Chavez was elected, just 52 kidnappings were reported.

Security experts say the real number of kidnappings today is much higher because many cases are not reported to authorities.

The government passed a revised law in 2009 that stiffened prison sentences for kidnapping and also allows authorities to freeze the banks accounts of victims’ families to prevent them from paying ransom.

Bodyguards typically shadow major leaguers when they return to their homeland to play in the winter league.

“Every major league player has his own security, but we don’t know if he had his security there at that time,” Domingo Alvarez, vice-president of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League, said.

In November 2009, the mother of Victor Zambrano, who retired after a seven-year Major League career, was rescued in a commando-style operation three days after she was kidnapped. The former pitcher’s cousin, Richard Mendez Zambrano, had been kidnapped a few days earlier, and was later killed.

In June 2009, Colorado Rockies catcher Yorvit Torrealba‘s 11-year-old son and brother-in-law were kidnapped and released a day later.

The mother of former player Ugueth Urbina, who was a two-time All-Star pitcher, spent more than five months in captivity until she was rescued in early 2005.

President Santos is facing criticism for a flawed approach to providing security in Colombia as the country prepares to vote in local and regional elections this week. According to Colombia’s Electoral Observation Mission (MOE), this year’s electoral campaign period is the most violent in Colombia’s recent history. At least 41 candidates have been killed and allegations of widespread corruption, fraud and insecurity seriously endanger the possibility of free and fair elections, the MOE says (download XL document with violence data here).

The president travelled to Arauca with his new defence minister and top military leaders to analyse the situation and make any adjustments to security protocols deemed necessary to restore order. President Santos replaced his defence minister and military high command in September and provided additional resources to improve intelligence gathering about the Marxist rebel and criminal groups operating in the country.

The Office of Special Investigations into Organized Crime (SIEDO) applied the declaration of abandonment of two million 409 thousand U.S. $ 2,409,000 for the federal government.

SIEDO was formed in the wake of a 2003 scandal that found agents in the Attorney General‘s anti-narcotics prosecution office, FEADS, actively working for or protecting Mexican drug cartels. As a result, SIEDO was formed with 117 agents whose backgrounds and psychological profiles were intensely researched, in the hope that agents prone to Cartel corruption would be weeded out before they could enter the force.

The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) reported that last June 17,that Mexico, Customs agents made available the full sum $2,490,000 to the cash SIEDO International Airport of Mexico City (AICM).

In a statement the agency said, that according to investigations, the money was found hidden in reels of telephone cable, would be transported to the city of Vargas, Venezuela, air line through Colombia.

The Federal Code of Criminal Procedure, Article 182-A, indicates that in the absence of expression of interest within 90 calendar days from date of notification, the lost funds shall be declared abandoned property and handed over to the federal government.

Now the Ministry of Finance will determine the distribution of money between the PGR, the Ministry of Health and the Federal Judiciary for the benefit of Mexican society